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Queer: Reclaiming the Spirit of a Word.

One thing about me is that I can’t go on twitter, click on a link (especially ones re-tweeted by @evanrachelwood) without going to the site (usually advocate.com or huffingtonpost.com) and reading comments on whatever article the before mentioned link sent me to.

Now your probably thinking, “Okay, so what?” Well, how to say this…….. Stupid folks get my “Irish UP”, which is usually followed by my posting a reply comment and then next thing I know it’s 4 hours later and my quickie 20 min on Twitter is anything but.

Luckily, I have my readers to express my half asleep, unwashed hair, insomnia again, undone laundry and dishes self to knowing that you lovely folks (who never rarely comment) will in your steadfast silence reinforce that “it’s okay/I’m okay simply because no one complained”.

So what had me all riled up?

Well, over @ the advocate.com Faith Cheltenham wrote an article entitled, “Why I Celebrate Bisexual Pride”. (Which by the way is September 23 annually since the early 90’s according to Faith) Ms Cheltenham’s article was good and basically a commentary/editorial piece about why she embraces the celebration of identifying as bisexual.

Of course, since I MUST read the all comments or suffer some sort of “aneurysm from low blood pressure and a productive lifestyle offline” I came across a comment from “Me@yahoo” (such an original username – nothing like owning up to your opinion, eh?) who wrote:

“Anyone who proclaims Bisexual Pride while referring to herself and other LGBT folk as “queers” is talking out of both sides of her damn mouth”. Reply · Like · Follow Post · Sunday at 3:35pm

So basically in my quick tempered and bad English intolerant way I replied:

“@me from yahoo — I’m not sure what your equivalency in regards to the English language is but the word ”Queer’ (as well as the word ‘Fag’) wasn’t originally used in regards to the to the LGBT community. Fag was a cigarette and Queer was used to describe something different. So to intimate that the Gay community has some type of exclusive ownership of the word Queer is ridiculous. In the last decade many folks who don’t want to be pigeon-holed, gender, sexual or otherwise have gotten back to the original spirit of the meaning of the word ‘Queer’, using it to describe that they are indeed ‘different’….. In fact, I think Gilbert and Sullivan said it best in Mikado: “If you want to know who we are”, “We figure in lively paint: Our attitude’s queer and quaint—You’re wrong if you think it ain’t!” . Heh. Fits, don’t it?

So maybe an advance course on words and their origins would help you from voicing your opinion at the same time as having your foot in your mouth.”

Then just when I thought it was safe to log off a Mr Anthony Berardo commented:

Anthony Berardo· Top Commenter · Rutgers–Newark

“Shouldn’t it be called “bench-sitter pride”? What’s an article like this doing in this gay magazine? What a bunch of crap. I remember when this magazine had standards related ONLY to the gay/Lesbian community”.

Reply · Like · Follow Post · September 22 at 11:30am

I have to admit that in my reply comment I noticed that my patience was dropping as rapidly as my IQ was. So my reply was:

@AnthonyBerardo How sad for you that you have become an oppressor no different than those who have been trying to run us gay and lesbians off since way before Stonewall. We gays and lesbians aren’t some exclusive team, love is love and injustice is injustice so maybe rather than discounting those on ‘our side’ embrace the spirit of the word Queer as different. How can I trust you to protect my rights as part of the LG if you scorn the BTQ part of the whole. Grow up and get with the times!

2 Comments

The comment from @me seems kind of incoherent, but I think it refers to the strange antipathy for bisexuals. (Oddly, I just touched on that in a recent post.) So while you were right on with regards to etymology, I’m not sure you really fielded the point. (On the other hand, as I said, incoherent, so maybe I’m the one who missed the real point… didn’t see the original article or comments.)

As to the Barardo comment, I’m still puzzling over why “tit [should] be called ‘bench-sitter’ pride.” Strangest term for boobs I ever heard. 😐

All seriousness aside, his comment also seems a bi-hater’s comment. I just don’t get that. Bisexuals and agnostics aren’t “on the fence,” but (at least to my eye) have made an active, and very inclusive (dammit), choice. It reminds me of how addicts and hard-core fans just need you to join them in their passion…. and if you don’t/won’t, then hate is a frequent counter-reaction.